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Apply for the Certificate

The Certificate Program in Engineering, Ethics & Society welcomes students from across the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

The certificate prepares students to: 

  • Develop an ethical awareness that helps them to think clearly and critically about the place of science and technology in diverse global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts
  • Foster an ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments
  • Contextualize their own experiences and communicate with others across diverse backgrounds, traditions, and cultures

Certificate Requirements

The certificate consists of 12 credit hours, derived from either courses selected from the EES Course Menu or courses of a student’s choice that have been approved by the Certificate Directors.

Any student who has completed the specified courses approved for this certificate but has not received a minimum grade of C+ in each course will still receive credit for these courses as H&SS electives.

Certificate Description

The EES certificate includes a cornerstone course that explores these philosophical questions (and others related to them). The certificate also steers students toward other courses that address these difficult questions and will help them find a path toward workable answers. The list of possible courses includes:

  • courses that view engineering in social, economic and legal contexts;
  • courses that study science and technology in the past, thereby illuminating their influence in the present; and
  • courses that explore the environmental consequences of STEM innovation.

Directors

All CEAS students in good standing at CU Boulder may apply to earn a Certificate in Engineering, Ethics & Society. After an initial advising meeting with one of the Certificate Directors, students must inform the directors that they intend to complete the certificate by submitting the EES Certificate Enrollment Form. Once a student has completed the requirements for the certificate, they should fill out the Certificate Completion Form and submit it to the directors. (Note: this form can be sent any time after the student completes the certificate requirements and grades for all courses counting towards it are in. Deadlines are on the Registrar's certificates page.) Once the Certificate Directors have approved the Completion Form, the Registrar's Office will add the certificate to the student's official record.

Certificate students are socially engaged and are involved in a variety of organizations throughout the college that seek to provide ethical grounding and moral focus to questions raised by technological development and engineering innovation. EES students:

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